Table



Dec. 2,1924. 1,517,730

C. JOANNET ET AL TABLE Filed Feb. 1. 22

QUE/M 1.

Patented Dec. 2, 1924.

CHARLES JOANNET AND ANDRE ASSAN T, F PARIS, FRANCE.

TABLE.

Application filed February 1, 1922. Serial No. 533,455.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES JOANNET and ANDRE AssANr, both citizens of the French Republic, residing at Paris, France,

have invented certain new and useful linprovements in. Tables, of. which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to supports for calculating machines, typewriters and the like, and especially for machines of great weight, as for example calculating machines with electric motor operation. The invention consists of an improved mechanical device for producing combined movements of raising the machine or typewriter while a protecting cover or table-top is removed, or of lowering the machine and replacing the cover after use.

The improved supporting device, which may be employed either alone or in combi nation with a desk, table or other piece of furniture, is of the kind in which the protecting cover or tabletop moves from its normal horizontal position above the machine into an approximately vertical position behind the machine, while the latter rises with a forward movement into a convenient position for use, and in which the machine base or table is carried on each 30 side upon two approximately parallel hinged arms, straight or curved between their ends, the movement of which is produced by suitable connections from lever-arms fulcrumed at stationary points and pivotally attached to the rear of the removable cover; in such devices it is known to ensure the rigidity of the machine table when raised, either by arranging the lever-arms themselves or intermediate connecting links so as to look upon a dead centre and thus hold the machine table stationary, or by resting this table upon a fixed point on the support of the device, after the arms have been made to pass beyond the vertical position; in all these cases the weight of the machine when raised is so taken or supported as to be rendered inactive as regards the lifting and lowering mechanism.

Now with calculating and like machines of great weight, which must be balanced by a spring or counterweight, if the dead centre device is utilized to take the weight of the machine itself, so that this weight is momentarily inactive, the force required at starting to lower the machine must be greater than the resistance offered by the weight of the removable cover and by the counterweight or spring tension, so that the force may sometimes exceed the strength of a woman operator.

The present invention is characterized by the fact that each of two symmetrically placed levers guiding the displaceable cover or table-top is provided with two arms extending in different directions, one of said arms; being of much shorter length than the other and being connected by means of a link to one of the parallel arms which are attached on each side of the .machine-supporting base and maintain it in horizontal position. during its rise and fall, the shorter lever arm, the link and the said connected. arm being so arranged in relation to one another and to their pivotal connections that they cannot at any moment take up a position in a straight line such as to constitute a dead centre upon which the machine-base could rest while raised. In this position the parallel arms supporting the machine base are substantially horizontal. The cover or table-top is also coupled at about the middle of each of its sides with the machine-base by means of a diagonal connecting and spacing link, in such a way that the fact of raising the front of the cover or tabletop contributes immediately from the start to the lifting of the machine, this diagonal link or connecting and spacing device at the same time coordinating the relative movements of the table top and the machine base so as to prevent them from coming into collision during the lifting or the lowering of the machine.

Another characteristic consists in the factthat a counterweight placed towards the back of the cover or table-top and substantially balancing the weight of the machine in the intermediate positions, operates towards its extreme lowered position to maintain the raised machine firmly in this position, rigidity of the machine in the raised position being obtained because the pivotal connections of the lever having unequal crank arms and the operating link approach the straight line, though they are prevented from actually reaching it by suit able stops limiting the displacement of the cover; this position therefore offers great resistance to the weight of the machine, the effect of the counterweight, which acts upon the longer arm of the lever, becoming immediately active in case of atten'ipted movement. This device nevertheless allows the lifting of the movable cover or table-top with a minimum effort, because the weight of the machine remains active right from the start owing to the absence of any dead center.

The various working parts of the device. viz, the lever-arms, the parallel hinged arms and the connecting links, are not only concealed beneath the protecting cover when the latter is in place, but they are also maintained substantially below or level with the machine base when the latter raised into working position.

This improved device is supported by two parallel cheek-pieces which may be provided with legs, the cheeks being placed .ymmetrically on. each side of the connections between the machine table and the protecting cover or table-top, so that the wl'iole forms a rigid structure.

The invention ishereafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings of a practical construction, given by way of ex ample, in which Figure l is an elevation from one side of the device, the other side being similar and placed symmetrically; this view represents the apparatus in two positions; Firstly, in full. lines, with the machine-base lowered and the protecting cover or tabletop in place, secondly, in dot-and-dash lines, with the machine-base raised and the cover removed to an approximately vertical position at the back.

Figure 2 is a front eleva ion of the device.

The invention comprises the connection and the means utilized for ensuring the con nection of the following three members: (1) a fixed frame; (2) a movable support or machine-base; (3) a protecting cover or table-top; the connection is produced by two sets of rods and levers constructed and fixed on. pivots symmetrically upon two parallel flanks of the device.

The frame a supports the whole apparatus; the base Z) is intended to receive the calculating machine or any other object of a like nature; the surface 0 forms the protecting cover, which, when the apparatus is fixed in a piece of furniture, is adapted to cover the opening through which the machine passes.

The frame can be composed for example of two similar cheeks (1, arranged symmetrically on each side of the apparatus. so that the latter rests entirely upon them.

The supporting base 7) can be solid or formed with suitable openings for the placing of the machine or other object which it is to support; upon each of the two parallel sides, there is fixed vertically a plate The surface 0 preferably solid and rectangular and made of wood or any other suitable material, can be reinforced upon each of its flanks by a piece of metal f, which may consist of an angle-liar as shonn in Figure this bar being fixed to the surface 0 by screws or any other means. A eonmensating balance-weight is fixed to the rear of the table-top or surface, for example by rivets connecting it to the reinforcen'ients or by any other means. A space fl may be reserved between the comiterweigrlit and the table-top. to serve as lodgernent l'or supplementary weights in case o l need. This counterweight is designed to balance tle weight of the machine upon the mso 2. in its intermediate positions and to operate towards its extreme. lowered [)Ulr'lfh'lll to maintain the raised machine lirmlv in thiposition. I

Each. of the two symmetrical sets of le en and links is divided into two groups of parts, of which one group ensures the elevation with forward movement. or of lowe ing with backward movement. of the base 7 and the other group effects the disnmiearance or setting up of the table-top or the like 0, as well as the coordination of these several movement two by two. viz. elevation of the machine and removal of the table-top. or lmvering of the machine and replacement of the table surface.

The first group comprises two parallel hinged arms 27 and j, each of which is fixed at one extremity to the frame-cheek o and at the other to the base 7, at suitable points. by means of screws, rivets or nipples o l' am kind around which they pivot.

The second group comprises mainly a. large lever Z: slightly cranked at the height of its axle Z pivoting upon the frame a; the end of its longer arm is pivotally at tached at a given point in the reinforcement f or in the table-top 0 near the rear of the latter; the end of its shorter arm is connected, by a connnon axis, to one of the ends of an operating link m, the other end of tlns link being pivotally attached at a given point in the hinged arm j, which. is ciu'ved or offset to clear the short arms of the lever 71?. The downward movement of the counterweight and the rearward displacement of the table-top are limited, so that in the raised position of the machine base 7) the shorter arm of the cranked lever Z has not come actually into line with the operating" link m the two parts last mentioned are thus prevented from providing a dead-centre locking action in this position, and the weight of the machine supported on the base 7) remains active, tending to restore the parts to the other position, but being unable of itself to overcome the counterweight. A spacing link 11 regulating the position of the surface 0 during its displacement is pivotally fixed at one end to the reinforcement loll 7' or to the table-top itself, and at the other end to the base 5, at suitable points as indicated, so that as the counterweight 9 falls and the base 6 rises, the front end of the surface 0 is tilted upwards to provide the necessary clearance or separation.

The lengths of the levers and links, as well as their points of connection and pivoting, are determined in such a way that the combination of the different circular arcs which they describe when the apparatus is in movement, produce the required effects; on the one hand, either the elevation of the base 7) with forward movement, or its lowering with rearward movement, to clear the underside of the table-top 0, and ensure parallelism between the diiferent positions of the base, by the action of the parallel arms 2' j, on the other hand, either the complete disappearance of the table-top c, or its replacement in position. During these movements regulated by the main lever is, the spacing link it prevents the cover 0 from striking against the machine or other object placed upon the base 6 during the elevation or the lowering of the latter.

The device which forms the object of this invention can be utilized alone; in this case it is provided with legs fitted to the frame a. Alternatively it can be combined with any suitable piece of furniture, the latter being built for example around the frame a, so

that the frame supports the weight of the machine.

Having thus described our invention, what We claim is A mechanical device for supporting typewriters, calculating machines and the like, comprising a fixed frame, a displaceable base, a cover adapted to descend from above said base to behind said base and vice versa, a pair of levers arranged symmetrically on opposite sides of said base, said levers being fulcrumed between their ends upon said frame and pivotally connected at one extremity to said cover, parallel suspension links connecting said base to said frame, operating links connecting said suspension links to the other extremity of said levers, said suspension links being approximately horizontal when said base is raised but passing to and beyond the vertical as said base is lowered so that the weight supported by said base tends to assist movement from either of the extreme positions, and diagonal spacing links connecting said base to points on said cover remote from the pivotal connections of said levers thereto.

In testimony whereof we have affixed our signatures in presence of a witness.

CHARLES JOANNET.

ANDRE ASSANT. Witness PAUL GIRonIT. 

